Placenta Encapsulation: What you Need to Know

This post was authored by: The Rock N’ Roll Doula, Co-Owner of ProDoula, Northeast Doulas

Placenta consumption, placenta encapsulation, ingesting your placenta, placenta encapsulation for ingestion….

Call it what ever you like, but for the love of all things holy, do not let anyone pick up your placenta from the hospital, put it in their car (or on the back of a bike), take it somewhere you’ve never been and bring it back to you as a jar of capsules, and expect wondrous results.

First of all, because we’re talking about where placenta encapsulation happens, let’s find out first why someone would want to consume her placenta.

Reasons for Placenta Ingestion

Placenta encapsulation for ingestion has been all the rave in some communities of the birthing world for some time now.  Depending on what part of the country you are from, you are probably more or less familiar with this practice. The women that choose to do so are very enthusiastic about it, seeking the benefits of consumption that they have heard or read about.

The advantages being reported anecdotally by mothers include an increase in breast milk production, an increase in energy levels and a decrease in postpartum depression. Some even cite that keeping the pills until menopause will be helpful in alleviating some of those symptoms as well.  While much of the feedback is only rumor, there have been a few studies that indicate some evidence that supports these benefits, whether it is through the effect of nutrients in the placenta or through placebo.  And, quite frankly, we are not so sure it matters, as long as the results are good and no harm is done, then why not?

Many birth workers over the last few years have added encapsulating placentas to their repertoire of services.

The Methods of Placenta Encapsulation

The two most common methods of encapsulating are the “Raw Method”, where the placenta is dehydrated, crushed into powder form and then encapsulated, and the “Traditional Method” where the placenta is first steamed, and then dehydrated, crushed and encapsulated.

Training to say you are an encapsulation specialist can include everything from watching a YouTube video to “at your own pace” online training, to an in person training, followed by a comprehensive certification process. Anyone can learn to do this and open a “business” claiming that they are professionals.

Amongst birth workers there are two schools of thought about where this process should take place and how the placenta should arrive there.

• It should be picked up by the person performing the encapsulation and brought to their home and delivered to the client in capsule form the next day.

• The person who birthed the placenta should transport it to their own home, and an encapsulation specialist should perform the encapsulation there, in the birthing mother’s home.

The problem with it leaving your site is that you cannot be sure, dare we say, if it is yours, if you got it all, and if it was prepared in sanitary conditions!

We have had the opportunity to hear every reason or excuse imaginable for why some encapsulation specialists want to bring your placenta to their own home to encapsulate it, and I wanted to share the top 5 with you.

• Faster turnaround time – There are encapsulation specialists that say they can whisk into a hospital, pick up one or more placentas, get back to their house, prepare yours and get it back to you while you are still in the hospital. This is great. Fast is good. We would all agree that reaping the benefits of ingesting your placenta as quickly as possible is best, but unfortunately you are not familiar with the specialist’s home. You don’t know the conditions of that home. You don’t have the opportunity to learn or ask questions about the process, and you don’t know if what you get back is what you gave. People who do this swear that their homes are clean and that they would never mix up people’s placentas. That’s good, right?

• No visitors – There are encapsulation specialists that say that you don’t want “visitors” in your home during your first postpartum week. They say it is intrusive for you to have them in your home. That surprises me since so many of them are also doulas with breastfeeding knowledge and experience, a great understanding of a woman’s postpartum needs and a real understanding of the early signs and symptoms of postpartum depression. It seems they would be exactly who you’d like to have around in the early postpartum days.

• Their safety – There are encapsulation specialists that say it is not safe for them to go to your home, that as a woman alone it is dangerous for them to go to the home of a new family to prepare a placenta for ingestion. Their fear is that you could be luring them there with the birth of your baby and a story about wanting to ingest your placenta in order to cause some kind of harm. They are afraid of you and prefer to just bring your placenta to their own home to prepare it.

• So we can work from home – There are encapsulation specialists that say we came into this work so that we could work from home, make money and still be with our families. “Jimmy, don’t touch that placenta. Sparky, get down!”…

• A woman should have choices – There are encapsulation specialists that say that as a woman you should have a right to choose where your placenta is encapsulated. If you want it done at someone else’s house, you should have that choice! They say that those of us who say it should only be prepared in the client’s home are eliminating choices for women! They think you should be able to have your placenta encapsulated in anyone’s home you like. Pick a neighborhood, knock on a door…. Hey, it’s your right to choose, right?

You have a choice about where your placenta encapsulation process can be done – your home or their’s. Just do yourself a favor, and think long and hard about what it could mean for you if your placenta leaves your sight!

Tags: placenta, placenta encapsulation, placenta ingestion